I honestly don't know how I got the shingles, but if you ever had chicken pox, then your body harbors the virus. I definitely had chicken pox as a kid. I am 59 now, and they usually recommend the vaccine for people 60 and over. My case might have been brought on by stress related to cycling, ironically. I took a cycling vacation last week and rode 300 miles in 6 days followed by another 115 miles in three days after I got back. A lot of that cycling was on hilly roads and/or at fast pace.

The doctor told me it was OK to keep cycling and exercising. However, I'll probably take off a couple days and then take it easy for a while. I've been doing some heavy duty riding lately.